Raymond Gurneau takes cop car for joy ride and crash

Raymond Gurneau took a Minneapolis police squad car for a quick joy ride before crashing it into a tree on Wednesday -- the same squad car in which he was being held after an arrest.

What the cops can't figure out is how the 5-feet 9-inch, 220 pound guy managed to force his way through the 12 x 16-inch plexiglass partition separating the front and the back of the squad car before stealing the vehicle.

They're also glad he didn't get very far, since the squad car carried all sorts of police tools of the trade -- including weapons.

Officers first nabbed Gurneau on an outstanding warrant at about 2:40 a.m. Wednesday at N. 34th and N. Dupont avenues; he was a passenger in a car that had been pulled over.

The cops put him in the back of a squad car and he was headed for jail, when he said he'd left a loaded gun in the car from which he'd been pulled.

The officer heads caught up with the car at Dupont Avenue and got out of the squad car to find the gun. That's when Gurneau pulled his Houdini act.

He took off in the squad car and made it about six blocks to N. 29th and N. James avenues before flubbing a corner and crashing into a tree. Then he hoofed it another few blocks before police caught him.

Back to jail to Gurneau. It should be familiar territory. He's been locked up 10 times in the past 14 years.

He's "no stranger to the back seat of a squad car or a jail cell," said MPD spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia.